Zimbabweans are in gave despair as prices of goods shoot through the
sky, rising between 100 and 300 per cent, bringing back bad memories of
hyper-inflation more than a decade ago.
Prices of goods skyrocket in Zimbabwe |
Some Zimbabweans are even weeping, according to the chief of the
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, Japhet Moyo. Moyo told the story of a
man he met, who saw the price of medicine for his chronic illness rise
so much in two months that it now costs almost his entire salary.
In February, the man bought a month’s supply of the drugs for $95. This month he forked out $300. His monthly salary is $320.
“I asked him how he managed to meet the rest of his monthly expenses
and he broke down weeping,” Moyo said in an interview with AFP.
Across Zimbabwe, the price of bread has doubled from $1.80 to $3.50 and a tub of butter that used to cost $8.50 is now $17.
The inflation nightmare that marked the rule of long-time
authoritarian leader Robert Mugabe has now returned to haunt his
successor Emmerson Mnangagwa, with warnings of the mental and physical
toll the rampant price increases will have on Zimbabweans.
Mnangagwa pledged to revive his country’s moribund economy when Mugabe was toppled in 2017 after 37 years in power.
But after the central bank unveiled a new monetary policy in
February, introducing a new local currency, prices of goods and services
have skyrocketed at rates unseen in a decade.
The disparity between the official and parallel market exchange rates
has been rapidly widening, triggering price hikes of up to 300 percent.
The chief of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, Japhet Moyo is
angry at the government for “putting on a brave face and giving the
impression that the economy is on a rebound but on the ground things are
going in the opposite direction”.
The crisis has brought back memories of a decade ago when
hyperinflation peaked at a grotesque 500 billion percent, wiping out the
Zimbabwean dollar.
“We are back to 2008,” said Tonderai Chitsvari, a resident in the
Kuwadzana township of the capital Harare. “It’s a miracle how people are
surviving”.
A shortage of raw materials has caused huge difficulties for the country’s manufacturing sector.
“Last year, we spent US$2.3 billion importing things like fruits and
vegetables, soya beans, wheat… toothpaste and pharmaceuticals,” said
Harare economist Gift Mugano.
“This is a sign that we are not producing even the basics,” he added.
“We are not talking about manufacturing an aeroplane here. We are
talking about saving scarce foreign currency by growing wheat to bake
our bread and soya beans to produce our own cooking oil.”
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries leader Sifelani Jabangwe said
the government needs to channel scarce foreign currency to shore up
distressed manufacturers.
“We need to reduce imports and promote local production,” he added.
Formerly a regional breadbasket, Zimbabwe’s economy has been in a
dire state for more than a decade, with the unemployment level soaring
to more than 90 percent.
Many local companies have been forced to move abroad or shut up shop,
while those that remained are operating below capacity due to the lack
of foreign currency to import raw materials or upgrade machinery.
Public anger over the economy contributed to the military
intervention in November 2017 that finally brought down Mugabe, then 93.
Mnangagwa took over and went on to win disputed elections in July
last year, vowing to turn Zimbabwe into a middle income economy by 2030.
But less than three months after the vote, the economic turmoil of
the Mugabe-era returned when a new two-percent tax on electronic
transactions in October spawned shock price increases and fuel
shortages.
In January of this year the president imposed a more than 100-percent
fuel price hike — purportedly to ease the shortages — but that sparked
countrywide demonstrations that left at least 17 people dead when
soldiers opened fire on the protesters.
Mnangagwa marked the country’s 39th independence anniversary on Thursday by slamming the new round of price hikes.
“Government is alarmed by the recent, wanton and indiscriminate
increases of prices which has brought about untold suffering to the
people,” he said.
It “is inhumane, unethical, unpatriotic and goes against the grain of
economic dialogue which the second republic has espoused,” he told the
crowd at a sports stadium in Harare.
Veteran independent economist John Robertson warned of the toll that the economic chaos was having on Zimbabweans.
“Standards of living are going down” Robertson told AFP. “It’s going
to affect their health, both mentally and physically, and reduce
productivity.”
Moyo said people “are giving into stress. That’s why we are having so
many cases of people said to have died after a short illness.”
And the main opposition leader Nelson Chamisa warned in his
independence day message on Twitter that “the stark reality is that most
are reeling from abject poverty and frustrations. State decay,
corruption & violence have shuttered the 1980 uhuru dream &
ruined livelihoods”.
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